Although China has backed United Nations sanctions over the North’s missile programme and is said to be angry at Pyongyang for not taking seriously its urgings to slow its nuclear ambitions, investment from China is a key factor in keeping the North’s economy afloat and the two have described themselves as being “as close as lips and teeth”. They had to surrender all telephones and communication devices, which is typical whenever foreign media cover an event where Kim Jong Un is present.
Advertisement
It is common for North Korea to stage massive parades in the square for major political events. Kim Yo-jong, the younger sister of the North’s leader, was not mentioned on the list, but she became one of the party’s 129 central committee members.
On South Korea, Kim Jong Un stressed the need for talks to ease cross-border animosities and emphasized reunification under a federal system, a decades-old proposal that would largely keep the North’s brand of socialism intact that has received no traction with Seoul.
Earlier on Monday Pyongyang had expelled BBC journalist Rupert Wingfield-Hayes after questioning him for eight hours. An unusually large contingent of 128 foreign journalists were issued visas to visit during the congress, but their access to formal proceedings was limited to a brief visit by a small group to the congress venue on Monday.
In an English-language article, China’s official Xinhua News Agency also reported that Xi “congratulated Kim Jong-un on his election as chairman of the Workers’ Party of Korea”. He said Wingfield-Hayes wrote an apology, was being expelled Monday and would never be admitted into the country again.
The power of the military expanded during Kim Jong Il’s 17-year tenure, which did not include a party congress.
In naming Kim “chairman”, the Worker’s Party has revised its charter and changed the title of its top leader. The decision appears to have come following the approval of a bill from the congress’s first day on May 6 titled “On Elevating the Dear Head of State to Our Party’s Highest Level”.
Portraits of Kim’s father and grandfather feature prominently..
Still, South Korea, technically still at war with the north since their conflict in the 1950’s, has dismissed those conciliatory gestures, condemning Pyongyang’s claim as a nuclear weapons state. “I think they are trying to symbolize that when his grandfather was leader, those were better days for North Korea”, Cha said.
Kim Jong-Un praised the “magnificent and exhilarating sound” of the North’s last nuclear test in January, and delegates adopted Kim’s report calling for an improved and expanded nuclear arsenal. It had already declared itself “a responsible nuclear weapons state”.
Letter from China At the conclusion of congress President Xi Jinping of China, with whom relations have been rocky of late, sent a letter of “fervent” congratulations letter to his ideological ally.
Advertisement
Evans Revere, an expert on Northeast Asia and a former senior State Department official, said the message out of Pyongyang was that nuclear weapons are a permanent fixture in North Korea’s security posture and the announcement it would not use nuclear weapons unless its sovereignty was threatened was an attempt to seek legitimacy as a nuclear-armed state.
